A Study On Senior High School Students ’ Productive Vocabulary Size In English Writing

According to linguists, vocabulary size is an important dimension for language learners which can be measured receptively and productively. With the rapid development of computer technology in recent years, researchers have taken many authentic language materials as corpus, and have made great impacts on this field. Based on the theory of previous studies, this research studies productive vocabulary development patterns of senior high students from No.2 high school in Altay from the perspective of productive vocabulary size, with 120 writings of them from Grade One to Grade Three as corpus; and the three levels’ word lists created by Laufer and Nation as word base lists. RANGE, a Lexical Frequency Profile Program, was applied in this study to analyze all the materials.The findings are as follows: First, from the perspective of vocabulary size, the average productive vocabulary size of NO.2 high school in Altay is 135.1 words per person. Vocabulary size changing from different grades, but there is not a positive correlation between them. Female vocabulary size is higher than male’s. Second, from the perspective of vocabulary sophistication, students tend to use the words which belong to base word one, while less of them can use the words in base word two and base word three. Both male and female students are like to use high- frequency words, but the levels of female students’ vocabulary sophistication are higher than that of males’. Third, from the perspective of vocabulary variation, the average level of their vocabulary variation is 37.67 per person. As the growth of grade, levels of vocabulary variation become higher and higher. What’s more, male students tend to use more vocabulary variations than females.The following suggestions are given to them. First, teachers can help students set up correct vocabulary learning consciousness through their daily studies. Second, instead of traditional teaching method, some flexible methods can be adopted in English vocabulary teachings to mobilize students’ enthusiasm. Third, teachers can help students cultivate the habit of using vocabulary learning strategies. For example, teaching students how to use dictionary, providing a place for English magazine reading, and so on. Fourth, more vocabulary practices can be given to students. Some activities can be hold to help students memorize more words, such as having a dictation or holding a vocabulary contest. Besides, more supervision should be given from teachers in order to increase students’ vocabulary size.